Breastfeeding promotion and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative

What it is

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global program established by UNICEF and WHO to promote healthy infant feeding and mother-baby bonding. Its primary objective is to educate the public on the benefits of breastfeeding and to encourage, promote and facilitate breastfeeding as set out in the UNICEF/WHO Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding chart. These steps promote breastfeeding to the public and give hospitals and birthing centers guidelines for the successful initiation and continuation of breastfeeding. A hospital or birthing center that seeks to be certified as Baby-Friendly must satisfy the Ten Steps in addition to meeting other requirements.

How it is treated

The criteria a hospital or birthing center must satisfy are the UNICEF/WHO Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding: first, have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff; second, train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement that policy; third, inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding; fourth, help mothers to initiate breastfeeding within an hour after birth; fifth, show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even when they are separated from their infants; sixth, give breastfeeding infants no food other than breast milk unless there is a medical indication; then practice rooming in, so that mothers and infants remain together 24 hours a day; then encourage mothers to breastfeed on demand; then give breastfeeding infants no pacifiers and no artificial nipples; and last, refer mothers to breastfeeding support groups on discharge from the hospital.

If mothers choose to give formula after appropriate education, they should be instructed in proper preparation and use.

In addition, the hospital must comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which requires that formula companies cannot give free gifts to staff or to mothers, that breast milk substitutes are not marketed in the maternity unit, and that breast milk supplements and infant feeding supplies are purchased at fair market price.